Dana White doesn't consider Fedor Emelianenko one of the best of all time, reacts to his retirement
UFC president Dana White does not hold Fedor Emelianenko in high regard when it comes to the 'GOAT' talk.
White made an appearance at the UFC Vegas 68 post-fight press conference. During his time there, the 53-year-old was asked for his thoughts on 'The Last Emperor's' retirement from MMA.
White said the Russian didn't compete in the UFC and thus did not test himself against the best fighters. For this reason, he does not consider Emelianenko to be among the greatest fighters of all time:
"I don't wanna s**t on the guy. You know, he's retiring tonight and all that stuff. I mean, you guys know the old interviews with me... I mean, he got knocked out by middleweight Dan Henderson. You know what I mean? I think some of the guys in the business [and] people liked him. So, they praised him. He never got to test himself over here. But I never was one of the guys that thought he was one of the greatest of all time."
Check out White's comments on Emelianenko from the 19:04 mark below:
Fedor Emelianenko competed in his last professional MMA bout at Bellator 290. 'The Last Emperor' took on Ryan Bader for the heavyweight title. The night did not go well for Emelianenko as he was knocked out in the very first round.
The Russian retired with an overall MMA record of 40-7-1.
Dana White speaks about the one fight he could not pull off
In June 2022, Dana White did a Q & A session where he spoke about the one fight he failed to make.
Dana White stated that he had managed to pull off huge fights like Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather but failed to make Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brock Lesnar a reality:
"I've made every fight that was ever possible to make in MMA, including Mayweather and McGregor. The only fight that I ever failed to make was Fedor vs. Brock. Every other fight that we ever thought about or fans wanted to see or whatever it was, I made. That's probably the one I couldn't pull off."
Watch Dana White take part in the Q & A:
Although Emelianenko never fought in the UFC, he defeated several UFC champions during his MMA career, like Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (interim), Andrei Arlovski, Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman, Quinton Jackson, Tim Sylvia, and Frank Mir.